From where do the great ones come

I have lately been reading about the influence of the community on a child's future. Some interesting patterns have been discovered. In the USA you are enormously more likely to be aggressive, pugnacious, prickly, or whatever you might like to call it if you are from a community in the South (my understanding is that the boundaries are south of the Mason Dixon line as far west as west Texas) or Appalachia (roughly the same footprint as coal mining communities in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee) orpoor urban communities than anywhere else.

Who are the best quarterbacks in ever? Off the top of my head and in no particular order:

A significant concentration in a couple of regions. The outliers include two from Cincinnati, which is almighty close to Appalachia, a coach's roving son, a player's roving son, a farmer also almighty near Appalachia, and when you get right down to it the only ones who are really outliers are Brady, Graham, Young, and Rodgers. None of them is anything to sneeze at, but the pattern is pretty big.

Assuming for the sake of argument that I haven't missed anyone (and if I have, I suspect I haven't missed all that many,) none from New England, the Mid Atlantic states, the Midwest (I don't include Ohio and Oklahoma there - for me Ohio is a border state, sharing rust belt and farming traits, and Oklahoma is really North North Texas,) the Pacific Northwest, the Rockies, the desert Southwest, or Hawaii. Lots of good linemen from those places, but not so many in the QB realm. I suspect Linebackers, defensive backs, tight ends, and running backs are similarly distributed but there is no way I will ever put time into finding out.

I thought it was neat, anyway.

Just realized I missed Fouts (San Francisco. ) Take him, Brady, and Rodgers, and San Francisco is the biggest outlier and another reason it is one of the more interesting cities in the land.

Thank'y. Glad you like it. It does suggest that an inquisitive approach to a player's early life might deliver useful-is information. I already had an idea that my offensive line should all be farmers. This recent reading makes me feel better about that one.

Plus Bob Griese. He is in the hall of fame so he was probably good. He was born in Evanston IL. Don't know what to make of that. And Ken Anderson who maybe should be in the hall of fame, in suburban Illinois. Got me there, too, though the percentages aren't greatly affected by him.

Norm van Brocklin looks like the weird one for me, at this point in the evening, anyway. I don't personally know anybody who was born in South Dakota. North Dakota, yes, and if he had had different parents and more interest in football than theatre he would have been huge for his era. Joe Jacoby but a little bigger and more nimble. Still , a protector, not a leader.